Philosophy lecture 9 - concluding religion.docx

Premium

3
Pages

88
Views

Unlock Document

School

Western University

Department

Philosophy

Course

Philosophy 1020

Professor

John Thorp

Semester

Fall

Description

th
October 10
Concluding Lecture on Philosophy of Religion
Arguments for Theism:
-Ontological Argument
-Cosmological
-(Pascal’s Wager)
-Four Ways
-Design Argument
-First mover, first cause, contingencies
-Aquinas, Paley, Fine Tuning
Miracles
There are two other pro arguments
a) The Moral argument – the only way good and bad in morality can be objective is if they are
given by the will of God
b) The argument from the Religious Experience – Some people have very intense religious
experiences (mystical experiences), which are, it seems, to be self-validating
Arguments against theism:
-EVIL
-Divine Hiddenness
-Cognitive Science of religion
-Moral evil
-Natural evil
Divine Hiddenness (John Schellenburg – Halifax… not dead)
-This is really new player in a very old field
The gist of the argument:
The Abrahamic God is thought of as omnipotent and as loving, and desiring to have a loving relationship
with every individual human being
Such a God would NOT make it difficult for humans to figure out is (s)he exists! However, it is incredibly hard to figure out that out
Therefore, no such God exists
Cognitive Science of Religion (Pascal Boyer – anthropologist at a university… not dead)
-Why is theism such a widespread phenomenon in homo sapiens?
-It seems that many people feel an invisible presence; a conscious force that accompanies them. This
seems to point the exi